[Ham-Computers] Win 98 Garbage Collector

[Duane Fischer, W8DBF]

Brag, brag, brag! (chuckle) I wish somebody would write a good screen reading
program for Linux so that I could give it a comprehensive and fair trial. But
the reality is, that it takes a huge amount of investment of time and money for
a third party developer, such as Freedom Scientific or G.W. Micro, to create a
working screen reading program. Henter-Joyce Inc., the company owned by Ted
Henter, who is totally blind, created the DOS screen reading software known as
JAWS For DOS and it sold for $450. (JAWS, for those who are curious, does not
stand for the great White Shark but for Job Access With Speech) He later
released JAWS For Windows which sold for $795. (I have heard it is now at $895,
which if so, is the only time since JFW was released in the late nineties that
the price has gone up.) Several other companies, Arkenstone and Blase
Engineering, who were on the brink of financial failure, were merged into
Henter-Joyce Inc. to become Freedom Scientific Inc.	
	
The 'ONLY' way anyone is going to write a screen reading program for Linux is if
the sales of the product will be substantial to assure that the people who
invested years of R/D, will make a profit. Now worldwide, the number one screen
reading software program, JAWS For Windows, has sold a total of just over
seventy thousand copies. It is a very narrow market, even though the need is
huge. But the people who need the software, such as those who are totally blind
as I am or legally blind or print handicapped (normal eyesight but unable to
read due to neurological issues), live at, and generally below, the national
poverty level. Hence, being as assistance for the handicapped, regardless if
they are blind or deaf or paralyzed or whatever, is not available from the
states or the federal government for "aids" or "appliances", (the term that a
computer and speech support would fall under), the handicapped person either
pays for it himself/herself, some family member or kind friend buys it for them
or some service club such as the Lions or Rotary or whomever buys it for them,
or they simply go without. As you have probably deduced, the vast majority go
without.	
	
Who does buy this wonderful software or electronic or special aids and
appliances? The school systems, colleges, rehab facilities, some state agencies,
some federal offices, some large businesses (have to meet the 'hire X number of
disabled folks rule') and so forth. 	
	
Sadly, and in my opinion, cruelly, many high school students who have used a
computer with speech output during their freshman-senior years are sent out into
the world to get a job, or off to college, without any technology to assist
them! This is destined to defeat these young people before they ever even have a
chance. Without the technology they have learned to use and depend on, their
chances for being successful are about zero.	
	
A less expensive way would be fantastic, but until somebody is willing to commit
that huge amount of time needed to create this incredibly complex piece of
software for free, it is not going to happen. 	
	
DBF     

----------
From: Dale Miller <stpatrick3 at twlakes.net>
To: Computers or other used for amateur radio communications or experimenting
<ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Win 98 Garbage Collector
Date: Saturday, July 23, 2005 6:40 PM

I tried WinXP for about 2 months...even locked down I got all kinds of 
garbage..
This is why I use Win2000...no problems...
Of course my Linux boxes are so much better...absolutely no garbage

-- 
Cheers & 73's
Dale Miller, KC2CBD
Tennessee
Ham Operator since 1997
Member of YahooPipesmokers and ASP since February 2005

stpatrick2spam at twlakes.net
stpatrick3spam at twlakes.net
stpatrick3spam at gmail.com

(cut the spam to reply)

---

_______________________________________________
Ham-Computers mailing list
Ham-Computers at mailman.qth.net
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ham-computers